


A Piece Of Me In Your Heart

by Shokushu



Category: All-New X-Factor, New Mutants, X-Factor (Comics)
Genre: Angst, Asexual Character, Fanart, Human/Robot, M/M, Other, Robot/Human Relationships, Shapeshifting, Suicidal Thoughts, TW: Suicide, human/alien - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-02
Updated: 2014-05-02
Packaged: 2018-01-21 15:58:09
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,484
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1555961
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shokushu/pseuds/Shokushu
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Filling in the gap between New Mutants Vol 3 and All-New X-Factor.</p>
<p>Warlock is worried about a change in Doug. Contains heavy angst and human/alien-robot relations.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Piece Of Me In Your Heart

**Author's Note:**

  * For [GoldenThreads](https://archiveofourown.org/users/GoldenThreads/gifts).



A Piece Of Me In Your Heart

Author: Shokushuu

Fandom: New Mutants, All-New X-Factor

Doug Ramsey sat bolt upright in bed and screamed for the third time that week. He didn't wake, however, and lay back down to continue his cold-sweated sleep. Warlock, who had already snuck into his room earlier in the night to check on him, sat weightlessly on the corner of his bed, just resisting from reaching out to comfort him. This was the hardest part of the night for Warlock. He knew that terrible nightmares plagued Doug- as if being murdered and brought back to life wasn't bad enough, he had also seen visions of his future in which he had enslaved humanity. Although Warlock came from a race of world-devourers, he knew that this kind of thing was NOT normal for humans to do, and not very good either, and it weighed heavily on his partner's mind.

“Selfsoulfriend,” he whimpered quietly, carefully pulling the covers over Doug's chest. Doug was still dreaming, his skin clammy with fear. Warlock contemplated shifting into a blanket to warm the young man up, but thought better of it. Doug had been mostly distant lately. Although he seemed to be recovering from the time slip at first, the rest of the New Mutants hadn't been so quick to forget. Made worse by Doug's inability to admit what he was feeling, he had started to withdraw from the team. Warlock could only watch in despair as his partner blocked himself off from both his team-mates and himself, turning the blame inwards. 

His mutant power was to understand all language- and it had made Doug hyper-sensitive to his team-mates' hesitation around him. When he had first come back from the dead, it was a lot more understandable- he was a brainwashed killer zombie. But how his team-mates had seen him as something arguably worse- a future world dictator of his own design. Not the puppet of an evil force, but of his own desires. The only one who wasn't hurt by all of this was Warlock, despite the fact that in this alternate future, Doug had taken him and made him into a weapon to control all of humanity. Yes, in this future, Warlock didn't exist except as “LockTech”, and for it Doug felt all the more guilty. But Warlock would never hold something like that against Doug. Although he did not know how it happened, Doug had a sinking feeling that Warlock would have willingly sacrificed himself to bring future Doug's evil plan to fruition. There was nothing Warlock wouldn't do for him.

Except leave him.

 

Every night it was the same. Dead mutants. A world laid to waste. Evil rising, good failing. The “True/friend” who was neither true nor a friend to anyone.

Day wasn't much better. The way his team members looked at him. He couldn't make eye contact with Dani anymore. Berto was feeling even more justified in his distrust, and Amara was starting to reconsider that Doug wasn't in control when he tried to kill her. Then there was Sam and Xian... he had already watched Xian die because of him in the alternate timeline. Most of them had forgotten the specifics due to the temporal shift, but Doug remembered it as clearly as it was yesterday. The longer it went on, the worse he felt.

Before this had all happened, his closest confidant had been Warlock. Now even Warlock was out of the question to talk to, because of the fear and guilt he felt. His future self had used 'Lock to his own evil ends... destroying him in the process. Now he felt doubly bad- half from the idea that he would hurt his partner, and partly that being in contact with Warlock would tempt him with the power to control the world. Every reminder of the power of the Transmode virus made Doug's stomach turn. He wished there was some way he could bring himself to confide in Warlock now... to beg him to never, ever let him use his power for anything. But no matter what Warlock promised... well, he had already seen the future.

That left him with very few options. Run away from everyone or... die. Honestly he wasn't even sure if he /could/ die any more. The transmode virus that had brought him back from the dead- a very dead skeleton dead- was still within him. Now matter how high a cliff he jumped off, poison he drank or blood he lost, would the T/O virus just knit him back together again? He didn't want to find out. When he did it would be too late.

'I guess I should try the less permanent option first then,' he thought grimly to himself. Now it was just a matter of how to break it to his team that he was leaving. And... how to make sure that Warlock wouldn't follow him. That was going to be the hardest part.

 

Warlock worried and fretted over Doug enough when nothing was wrong, that when something was definitely up, he didn't know if he had the fortitude to deal with it. Sure, he had watched him die, come back to life, and had even been nearly killed by him... but despite the innate sense of his own ability to deal with the worst, he still worried what else could happen. Lately there had been a change in his selfsoulfriend. The wavering indecision that had been written across his countenance was now replaced with resolution. Something was up, and he needed to know what.

“Selfsoulfriend,” Warlock called out tentatively to Doug, who was sitting at his laptop. Doug jumped and closed the window of his web browser in what only made what he was doing more suspicious, but was an automatic reaction. “Lock?” he answered, turning to face the hesitant Technarch.

“Selfsoulfriend is troubled, self can feel it,” Warlock continued gently. 

“When haven't I been?” Doug smiled grimly. “It all started when I found out I was a mutant...”

“That was self's fault,” Warlock said sadly, “If self hadn't been coward and run away to Earth, selffriendDoug wouldn't have found out he was a mutant, and these things wouldn't have happened. Self is sosorryshame,” he concluded dramatically.

“Ah, no, that's not what I meant, 'Lock!” Doug quickly corrected. “I would have found out whether you had come or not... and that's besides the point! I'm so glad I met you,” he continued quickly, now getting out of his chair and reaching out a hand to comfort his distressed partner.

Warlock clasped Doug's offered hand and held it to his cheek. Doug was taken aback at this all-too-human gesture, and his heart sank realising that he was planning on leaving Warlock, when Warlock so clearly needed to be near him.

“I'm tired, so tried,” Doug said sadly, and Warlock understood exactly what he meant.

“Let self help,” Warlock said, still holding Doug's hand to his cheek, meeting his gaze shyly.

Doug felt a pang shoot through his core that he hadn't in a long time. Something he hadn't allowed himself time to feel because it was too powerful. He knew Warlock was offering him the only relief from his pain that he knew.

“I don't know,” he began hesitantly. “Is it... safe?”

Warlock hummed and tilted his head. “Selfsoulfriend is already infected with transmode virus. It cannot become worse.”

Doug swallowed nervously. “Then... please,” he managed to whisper.

Almost before he could finish his words, Warlock had scooped him up into his limbs, almost losing all coherent form as he whisked Doug to his bed. He laid him down gently, and Doug tried to catch his breath as he watched the Technarch's form change. His sleek black form glowing with golden threads stretched out into a multitude of limbs, all falling around where Doug lay. Not yet game to initiate contact, Warlock looked into Doug's eyes to ascertain consent. 

“I don't want to feel anything for a while,” Doug said softly. Warlock ached with futility. No matter how deep the merge he was about to start, it couldn't last. But for now he would concentrate on what he could do to help, even temporarily.

Warlock initiated the soulmerge, starting with Doug's hands and feet, arms and legs. Doug's eyes rolled back in his head and Warlock sunk deeper into him, their torsos merging together, then their chests. Finally, Warlock pressed their lips together, and his techno-organics melted into Doug's face, and they were completely connected.

The sensation for Doug was complete and utter relief. Pleasure coursed through his entire being, and the feeling of being home, being safe and cared for eliminated every thought that had been coursing through his head not moments ago. His body felt light, and he could not longer see anything but a golden glow. He could feel Warlock's transmode infiltrate every cell in his body, and he felt a wholeness that had been missing for so long. The relief and pleasure were so absolute that he couldn't even worry that what was happening was too powerful for him to resist.

Warlock felt relief too, but not the bodily pleasure that Doug felt, but a supremely deep sense of comfort knowing that for this moment, he was completely inseparable from Doug. For only when they merged he knew /exactly/ where he was, what he was feeling and what he was thinking.

Ah yes, thinking. One advantage of being the source of the transmode virus was that it allowed Warlock complete access to Doug's mind, without Doug's knowledge, or similar access for Doug. It was a one-way street, which he knew he shouldn't access, but he absolutely couldn't stop himself from. Within moments he knew that Doug was going to leave him. All the nightmares he had suffered in the past months flowed through his mind like movies, each twisted in it's own way, but all relating to the vision of the future Doug had seen.

Warlock made sure that Doug was too consumed with pleasure to notice that he was now going deeper into his mind than he had dared before. He could individually stimulate any nerve in Doug's body that he wanted to, so he choose the most sensitive ones to keep him distracted. He would have liked to have shared Doug's current physical experience, as sexual pleasure wasn't a natural Technarch sensation. For now, he distanced himself, and dived deeper into Doug's subconscious.

 

Warlock found himself in what appeared to be a black room, with a single beam of light coming a small, high-up window. Doug sat on a chair, with his face in his hands, weeping and muttering to himself. Warlock ventured closer, but the Doug in the chair didn't notice him.

“It's all my fault, all my fault,” Doug repeated to himself. “I betrayed them all, killed them. I don't deserve to live.”

The room was suddenly lit up with a blinding light, and Warlock shielded his eyes. When he took his hands away and adjusted his eyes to the light, he saw Doug was now standing on the chair with a noose around his neck. 

“Selffriend no!” Warlock cried out, but it was too late. Doug kicked the chair out from underneath himself, and the noose tightened around his neck as he fell. Warlock leaped to catch him, but caught only air. 

He turned around, and the scene had changed. Now Doug was standing on the ground, but he still was not safe. He held a pistol to his temple, and his glassy eyes did not see Warlock standing in front of him. 

“I'm so sorry,” he said simply, and pulled the trigger.

Warlock had seen enough, and pulled himself back out of Doug's body. He watched Doug gasp and heave as he disentangled his circuitry from his flesh. His eyes were glassy, but instead of with depression as Warlock had seen in his subconscious, they were heavy with lust.

Warlock calmed himself that the visions he had seen moments ago were not real, and it was only Doug's fear and shame that were causing his current state. However, he could not allow his soulmate to leave him as he planned to with those dangerous thoughts boiling away. It was time to take drastic measures, and install a fail-safe inside of his dearest's body. It was unconventional, for sure, but Warlock was not going to allow Doug to ever leave his sensory range again.

He formed a hand and stroked his lover's cheek softly. Doug looked up into his eyes lovingly.

“Warlock, what's wrong?” he asked.

“Self wanted to look at you from the outside,” he lied, but Doug was too far gone to tell.

Warlock sunk back in to Doug's body, pausing only to kiss his neck and then lips in a way that humans were accustomed to. Doug hungrily kissed back and Warlock let himself share the pleasure for a moment. Truly human experience was intense, and he wondered why humans weren't out having sex constantly. Doug especially seemed indifferent to the prospect most of the time, even though Warlock noted his peers were quite the opposite. Still, he didn't know everything about human experience, so he filed the thought away. He completed the full-body merge again, and when he was sure that Doug was unaware of anything apart from his nerve centres, he went about installing a delicate monitoring device, just above his heart.

The device would transmit all kinds of data to Warlock from now on, so that if they were separated as it seemed to soon be inevitable, he would not lose track of him. It also had the potential to save his life if his vitals stopped. Warlock hoped that would not be necessary, but also did not rule out the possibility. Finally, he cloaked it with Doug's own copy of the transmode virus so that he would not notice it's presence.

Satisfied with his work, the Technarch again pulled himself half out of his human's body, this time to actually take in his face. Doug seemed completely unaware of the surgery he had just been through, and reached up to hold Warlock's shoulders.

“Please,” he whispered desperately, “I'm so close.”

Warlock leaned down again and kissed him deeply. He intensified the stimulation to his pleasure centres, and moments later felt Doug gasp and shudder underneath him, gripping tightly into his arms. 

Doug fell back and Warlock completely untangled himself from the human's body, now wrapping himself around him like a blanket. Doug's eyelids were heavy and he snuggled in, glowing with happiness with the long-overdue intimacy. 

Despite the knowledge that this was probably going to be the closest they would be for a long time, Warlock let himself relax as well, and enjoyed the comfort of being so close to his soulmate.

“I love you,” he whispered, but Doug was already asleep.

**Author's Note:**

> I refer to Warlock as a "he" only for convenience. I personally see Warlock as non-gendered (being from a race of asexual techno-organic aliens), but because "his" appearance and canon pronouns are male I'm kinda stuck with that.


End file.
